We all tell a little white lie every so often.

No… your bum, doesn’t look big in that extra extra large swim suit.…..
I’ve only had three pints…
Moi, eat the rest of your pizza? How very dare you.

There’s the odd white lie, and there’s blatant lies. Unfortunately when it comes to stretching the truth, some internet businesses are no different, and neither are some server hosts. Whether it’s a Call of Duty 4, Team Fortress 2, or Counterstrike server host you are looking for, here’s three common porkies to beware of when choosing the next host for your clan’s gameserver:

• Do they really offer the 24/7 support advertised?
• Are they really hosting gameservers from their own datacentre?
• When they talk about we is it we, or me?

The great 24/7 support server host lie

Sometimes I feel like a stuck record going on about this one. I probably am.  But it does erk me those one-man server hosts (see below) claiming 24/7 support. If your bank claimed to be open 24/7, and it wasn’t, you’d call your local outsourced call centre and give them a jolly good piece of your mind.

So it shocks me, frequently those server hosts that use the whole 24/7 support thing as the main selling point. Telephone numbers that always go through to answer machine. Emails and support tickets unanswered for days. If only gameservers weren’t so important, and out lifeline! In fact, I had a shock the other day. My own public Call of Duty 4 server went down. I was shaking with fear. I nearly had to go out. Can you believe it? Luckily I was able to phone myself, and got the server rebooted.

But what if you’ve already bought a gameserver from a server host that claims 24/7 support when they don’t? Would it be acceptable for the server to go down at 6pm on a Friday night, and your server host doesn’t respond until Tuesday?

Some server hosts think the fact a website is potentially online 24/7, and that you can fill out an online contact form at 4am, means they offer 24/7. Don’t fall for it. They might think it means support 24/7 . It doesn’t.

My gameserver host has their own datacentre

This comes a close second on the lie scoreboard to the 24/7 myth.

There’s nothing wrong with not owning a datacentre. Let’s face it, if you are in the know you’ll understand already a minimum datacentre budget is going to cost you upwards of half a million to kit out. So it’s not really practical budget wise, for gameserver hosting.

But what is a concern is those hosts, that copy and paste data centre specs from their dedicated server host, and conveniently pass it off as their own.

Beware. Not knowing you do get found out for this, says a lot about this kind of server host.

Server hosting, to we or not to we

That is the question. There’s nothing wrong with a one man company. I’m sure you wouldn’t tip your window cleaner off his ladder, because the window washing waster doesn’t have 30 employees. Well you might if you are a tad sadistic, or he’s not cleaning the windows very well (my window cleaner, beware). The same logic applies to a game server. There’s lots of single man (or girl) server hosts working 8-10 hours a day, and providing excellent service.

But what if the me suddenly becomes a we. The server host that tells you you need to contact support, but it’s actually the same person. The clan server host that claims he has 3 support staff….but he’s actually paying them with a COD 4 server and a bag of nuts.

Being liberal with the truth, stretching the truth, or outright lying?

All my personal opinion, but a hopefully a few pointers to keep you informed all the same

Until tomorrow